Deep in the Woods
by TwoPointNo
Summary: Regina and Henry go camping every year on his birthday, but this time Emma will not allow her son to spend a night in the middle of nowhere with the Evil Queen. [OneShot]


-"No you are not listening, my hair's been acting out for the last weeks and I don't know what's wrong" Emma Swan said after a sip of her coffee to her friend who was sitting in the stool next to hers waiting for the next costumer to walk in.

-"What? Your hair looks the same to me. Why are you so self conscious?" Ruby replied, asking herself why Emma was discussing this with her

-"I don't know, maybe because I have actually seen myself in a mirror"

-"I'm a proud mirror owner too" Ruby replied, fighting sarcasm with sarcasm

-"Yes, but you don't have one flaw in your body"

-"You know what Emma I don't have time for this"

-"Okay, what conditioner do you use? Mine is obviously not doing its job anymore"

-"I assure you, you're the best looking woman in Storybrooke" Regina said as she interrupted what she thought to be the most childish conversation she'd ever overheard Emma Swan taking part of, when she realized what she'd just said she continued lowering her tone an octave "But your physical appearance is not the matter I'm here to discuss"

-"Ummm, thanks Regina, I guess" Emma replied trying to figure out if it was Evil-Queen-sarcasm or Regina-needs-to-be-nice, "What do you need to talk about" she asked knowing Regina paying nice was not going in a good direction. Ruby sensed it too and made a silent exit to the point in the kitchen where she could listen and watch while acting like her focus was in the burgers

-"Henry's birthday is coming, as you must remember, and I'd like to go camping with him, we used to do it every year, he loves wild life, why is beyond my knowledge but he really looked forward to it _every year" _Regina answered making emphasis in the yearly nature of the trip she was proposing

-"No" Emma answered without hesitation and took a sip of her coffee to think her strategy in the upcoming battle, she looked up from the cup to lock her eyes with the mayor's in which she saw wrath growing, immediately she felt fear spread through her body, ready to make a run for it if necessary

-"Why? If I may ask, your majesty"

-"I- I can't tru- trust you to come ba- back" Emma uttered before pulling herself together to face her "You out there in the woods with my kid , what assures me you won't take him away?"

-"I can't cross the town line you idiot"

-"For all I know you found a way and are ready to run"

-"And in this plan of yours, how do I disappear with a twelve-year old?

-"Money's all you need, trust me, I've disappeared a few times myself and I'm sure you could manage"

-"I am not kidnapping my son Miss Swan; I'm just trying to keep a part of his life like it used to be before you came along, for both his and my sanity"

-"Emma! Mom?" Henry said as he got into Granny's looking at the women on the verge of killing each other

-"Hello dear" "Hi kid"

-"Why aren't you home?" Regina asked annoyed at the idea of her son wondering alone in a town that even when populated by fairytale characters was full of small dangers

-"Grandma told me Emma would be here so I came"

-"Of course you did" Regina replied not letting her tone convey how annoyed she was at the fact that he would disregard everything she'd taught him to see Emma Swan

-"What are you doing here mom? You have a town to run"

A wicked smile came across her face dragging Emma's attention to the dark red lips "I was discussing your birthday plans with Miss Swan"

-"Oh great!" he said with a huge smile "can I take my camera this year? I know there's a no-tech policy but I really want photos of you fighting the mosquitoes mom, please they're the only things I want for my birthday" he asked putting a sad face that he knew even the evil queen would fall for. Emma's face hardened when she saw the excitement on her son's face, she would not let him spend possibly the rest of his life running with Regina

-"Sorry dear but as it seems there will be no camping trip this year" Regina told him faking despair but knowing she was on her way to what she wanted

-"Why?" Henry groaned quite loudly inside the dinner making heads turn and Emma feel worse,"I know you hate the woods but you came from The Enchanted Forest so I suggest you get over it"

-"It is not me who is against the idea; I have done it seven times already why wouldn't I endure another? It is Miss Swan's decision, as you know I no longer make the calls alone. I will see you later dear; I do have a town to run and presents to buy as well". Regina kissed the top of Henry's head before saying "Miss Swan" with a smug look in her face that could not even begin to convey the situation she'd left her with

-"Let's go home kid" she said as she left a bill on the counter and ushered her son out of the diner.

Henry was completely silent during the ride back to Mary Margaret's apartment and Emma thought the ice treatment was still better than a lifetime of where is Waldo so she did not found a reason to push. He had not uttered a word until Dinner

* * *

-"So Henry what cakes do you like?" was the first thing David said when he sat on the table

-"I don't want cake"

-"Who doesn't want cake?" Mary Margaret chimed

-"He's mad because I said no to a camping trip with Regina" Emma explained to her parents his behavior

-"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME. IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE THE ONLY PARENT I'VE GOT, YOU DON'T GET TO TAKE EVERY CALL ALL BY YOURSELF, EVEN MY MOM KNOWS THAT. I'D LIKE TO GO; DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT THAT?"

-"Jesus Henry calm down, you know we can't really trust Regina, I mean she loves you a little bit too much, she'll do anything if we let you out of our sight"

-"WELL IF WE'RE LOOKING AT PAST DECISIONS HERE YOU OR NEAL ARE NOT VERY RELIABLE EITHER, AND SHE HAS 10 YEARS OF GREAT PARENTING ON YOU AND 11 ON NEAL AND I MISS HER"

-"What the hell?"

Mary Margaret and David watched Henry's rant silently not really wanting to chip in because they were low in the good parenting years themselves and thought maybe a part of changing that had to do with letting Emma deal with her own problems, at least that's what they wanted to believe.

-"I'm so- sorry Henry. I- I'll see what I can do" Emma stated as her son walked up the stairs to his room.

/

Henry made a point to not speak to anyone in that house for a while so next morning he woke up, got dressed and went to school without even stopping for a toast. Later Emma walked into Regina's office on her way to the sheriff station and started talking without even having a proper banter.

-"I'm going with you two"

Regina looked up from her paperwork to find an obviously upset Emma looking at her defiantly "Miss Swan, what a pleasant surprise, although it is a little early, don't you think?"

-"Look, I am so not in the mood to play with you today. Henry really wants to go but if he goes I go. Take it or leave it"

-"What would you do if I were to _leave it_?"

-"Deal or No deal Regina?"

-"I'll be more than pleased to take you in _our_ camping trip princess" Regina said thinking it was better to pick her battles and feeling great she had won this one. After Emma had left she continued to fill the forms on her desk for a few minutes before she realized she had been doing it completely wrong. She didn't know why, she never gets forms wrong, twenty-eight years filling the exact same blanks, she could do it with her eyes closed; but this time she had been distracted, her mind had wondered off to Emma, she was thinking about Emma who had just invited herself to her camping trip, but Regina wasn't mad, she was glad or at least a bit excited, because maybe she'd bring that jacket that she was wearing just minutes ago, and god she looked good in that jacket, Regina stopped herself right there because she wanted to get that paperwork done to go gear up for the trip, or so she told herself.

* * *

After school Henry came into the loft and headed straight to his bedroom to eat the burger he'd bought in Granny's and left Emma to pay for whenever Ruby felt like charging her. Later, at night when Emma came home from the station he was lying down face down in his pillow and headphones blasting, which she had to pull from his ears after a few calls he pretended not to hear

-"Oh, don't you trust my iPod? I could toss it aside if it'd make you feel better" he said channeling his best sarcasm

-"C'mon kid", Emma was shocked at how much nurture had overdone nature in that comment, "I have good news"

-"Really? Let me guess, I get a picnic with Mary Margaret, David and you; because that truly is _all_ I've ever wanted my _whole_ life, picnics with my _lost_ family" he replied making emphasis in all, whole and lost, making Emma feel positively guilty but mostly hurt.

-"Jesus, tone it down. I'm just here to tell you that you will be going to your precious camping trip, I'll be out of your hair in a second" she said feeling the need to lash out to defend herself

-"Really?"

-"But I'm going too"

-"That doesn't sounds like you'll be out of my hair Emma"

-"Take or leave it"

-"What if I leave it? Do I still get my picnic?"

-"Oh my god, do you want to go? Because your window is closing" she said stunned at the similarity between this discussion and the one she'd had with Regina, it really was scary how much people could turn out like they parents, she wondered how she would have ended up like growing up next to Snow White

-"Okay, just try to not ruin it with the constant fighting" Henry replied, now feeling better about his birthmother

-"Just go to sleep, you have school tomorrow"

Emma went downstairs to distract herself from the intense parenting moment she'd just have with some food but before she could get to the kitchen she saw Mary Margaret with curiosity in her eyes sitting in front of the TV, so she thought she might as well give her a few parenting minutes and sat next to her In the couch to fill her in the recent developments of the camping situation

-"So we're going camping with Regina"

-"You and Regina in the woods one night? That doesn't sound right"

-"So what? I should just let him go get kidnapped by her?"

-"I think you're overreacting, he really liked to do that, he wouldn't stop about it before and after in school, and if Regina wanted to abduct him, she would have by now"

-"If he goes alone, she might convince him to go with her, and that'd be worse than kidnap, he'd actually not want to come back"

-"He wouldn't do that"

-"I don't think he likes me that much"

-"He was just angry"

-"Just? You should have seen him; he was cold and distant with _just_ a speck of hurtful"

-"Emma-"

-"No, he hated me; he was like, well, her. Calculative and sarcastic, looking for the perfect words to destroy"

-"I don't think Henry can be like that, I've known him since he started preschool, and he's a good kid. You were angry too; it makes you see what you'd like to see, and you seem like you want to find a way to blame Regina right now"

-"No, there's a whole different Henry in there, you just have to trigger it, like a horcrux situation"

-"I don't get that reference Emma"

-"Never mind, you know he even had this perfect comment about how we've never been around for his whole life, emphasis in whole. That one hit a nerve"

-"Well, he's right"

-"Well yes but the way he said it, it was fucked up"

-"Emma!"

-"Oh please, you're going to have to learn how to deal with that, you didn't raise me, I don't have to obey you"

-"what?"

-"It hurts right?"

-"I'm going to bed now" she said as she stood up and walked away

-"Sorry, no seriously, sorry, shit, mom? How's 'mom' not getting you back here? I need more advice, don't pass up these bonding moments, I might go camping with one of my foster parents and decide I'm not coming back, Mary Margaret?"

-"You wouldn't do that to us, neither would Henry"

-"Me maybe not, but he is the Evil prince, or something like that"

-"Go to sleep Emma, you're rambling" she said already from her bed

-"You should read me something, or sing, I though Snow White could sing, I knew my entire life had been a lie when you couldn't get birds to clean"

-"Emma"

-"Bed, I get it"

/

Regina had parked her car outside the building ten minutes early than they had agreed, knowing him there was no point in going up as he would still be trying to gather his possessions managing to leave behind only what they would need in the woods, and knowing Emma Swan she'd be in the exact same situation so Regina decided to stay in her car for good 20 minutes giving them time to act like they were patiently waiting for her to show. Upstairs Emma was actively waiting her phone to charge completely while throwing glances at Henry's bag wondering what she'd probably forgot to throw in her own and hoping Regina would not be in time to see them rush up and down because they fell asleep, irresponsible was not a good look on her as a parent, or an adult; Henry who had kept his distance from her finally spoke after minutes of door-surveillance

-"Mom's 10 minutes late, she's never late, she's probably sitting outside avoiding Mary Margaret and David, we should go"

-"If you say so, go, I'll meet you in a second" Emma said looking at the lightning in her phone's battery, she was regretting not plugging it the whole night before

Henry came out with the same bag in his back his mom had bought him when he turned four and went camping for the first time, to find Regina walking to the door with her car keys and a plastic bag. He dropped the backpack to sprint towards her and give her a hug that felt more like a tackle

-"Mom! are you ten minutes late?"

-"I was sitting outside"

-"I knew it" Henry said assuring her he would never lose his confidence in her punctuality. He went to pick up his bag and put in on his shoulder making Regina smile at him

-"What?"

-"I remember when I bought you that bag, you were not able to pick it up because it was heavier than you but that didn't mean you would stop trying, you fell a few times in your way to the car"

-"I can pick it up now mom"

-"I see that, you're very strong, I should get you a horse"

-"You totally should, and a sword that is not made out of wood" He answered gleeful at the prospect of a horse believing She would buy him one.

Emma was just making her way out of the house with her phone in her hand, feeling relieved they were not just sitting in the car waiting for her and complaining at her lack of adult skills or worse fleeing to Australia already. "What's wrong with wooden swords?"

-"Miss Swan" Regina said with a nod redirecting her attention to the blonde looking for a small pocket in her bag for her phone

-"Hi Regina" she replied looking up, she couldn't help to think Regina looked way better in skin-tight jeans and plaid shirts than the average human, and that somehow she had outdone the already stunning Regina in skin-tight dresses, she didn't think such feat was possible

-"I'm sorry we have to take Emma" Henry said reminding her of the situation

Regina was surprised at her son's attitude towards his other mother, saying something like that in front of her, he meant to hurt. Regina wanted to reprimand him about it but instead she sipped on the fact that she might have been his favorite for the first time in the time Emma Swan had been in the picture; who to Regina's dislike was not wearing the jacket she'd wore to her office

-"I'm just glad you can go" Regina told him with as much honesty as she had "I got you this year's car" she said as she got a miniature vintage ford from the bag she'd been holding

-"Mom this one is awesome, I'm going up to leave it here, I can't take it, it might break" he replied as he hugged Regina before walking back in

-"So that explains the other seven cars he never plays with" Emma said as the tradition dawned on her and she understood why he had jumped from his bed when she touched one over a month before

-"They're collectables Miss Swan" Regina replied conveying that playing with them was unfathomable "He has plenty of Hot-Wheels to play with"

-"I just thought they would add a lot to the plot in his Scarface role play"

-"You let him watch Scarface? You wanted him to role play cars getting shot and having accidents with the collectables?"

-"Henry said we shouldn't fight"

Regina's gaze darkened at the comment, using her son as a card to get out of the conversation, but as she was about to respond Henry came out grabbed his bag and got down the stairs skipping some every time he had the chance

-"let's go, we've talked enough"

-"Careful, you might fall" Regina yelled as she saw him rush down

-"The backpack doesn't own me anymore mom" he yelled back making her smile

-"Hardly my point" she yelled as they began to walk down too

-"What does he mean?" Emma asked confused by that comment

-"The backpack was bigger than him and it would make him fall quite often Miss Swan" Regina replied suddenly reminded of her presence

-"Oh" she replied sadly, realizing she'd miss the days a backpack could take him down and he was actually too young to handle Scarface

* * *

The royal automobile got the somehow family in less than an hour where Regina and Henry set up the camping gear surprisingly well without magic, they were to share a tent while Emma had one of her own, that she hadn't completely set yet

-"I thought you were a drifter" Henry said amused

-"Next year we camp at a bus station and I'll show you"

-"Are you inviting yourself to our trip every year Miss Swan"

-"I—"

-"No fighting ladies"

-"Did you just call us ladies?" Regina said looking at him smiling

-"whatever, after this one you're gonna be thrilled to have me in every one" Emma said struggling to pin the last corner of her tent

-"How so?" Henry asked, his mood had improved now that he was having one-on-one contact with the dirt

-"I have the best horror stories ever, I'm good until you turn fifty"

-"Henry could you not do that please?" Regina who had long ago stopped listening asked him when he took a stick from the ground to move a worm around

-"How did you deal with the worms in the Enchanted Forest mom?"

-"I'd like to know how they dealt with, well everything" Emma said finally moving away from the tent and sitting in front of them

-"I avoided them, and if they were anywhere unavoidable I'd sent a servant to get them"

-"I feel like that's going to be the answer to everything kid"

-"Mostly, yes. You should ask Miss Lucas, her answers should be more entertaining or Miss Blanchard, she had a few months to figure how to live without servants"

-"I should have servants" Henry said looking at the clouds

-"I'm hardly sorry for your lack of servants Henry, I don't see why you would need them here"

-"To get the worms, I had to deal with my own worm-related problems growing up, it is not pretty" Emma replied making Henry laugh a bit and for once Regina agree

-"when I got here the first week there were cockroaches in the house, it was a challenge for me. I got it under control fast enough though" she told them

* * *

The afternoon went by surprisingly without a fight, not only was Henry being warm to both women at the same time for a change, but they had been civil to each other too. When night fell they had shared a vast number of stories of their childhoods and Henry's, making Emma feel a mix of joy for being welcomed and sorrow for listening to her son's life like he was a stranger, on top of a newfound positive response to Regina that she felt was being mutual in the moment, without letting aside the fact that she looked even better when her smile was honest, Emma was starting to wonder how could a human being look that good in the middle of the woods waving her arms around to make the insects fly away.

-"I forgot the camera" Henry said looking at her breathe heavily

-"Of course you did, you always manage to forget something, even when I pack your bags" Regina said passing her hands through her hair and recalling all the things he'd left to their trips and making Emma feel more of a third wheel than she actually was at that point of the trip.

When midnight came and it was officially Henry's birthday Regina made a neatly wrapped box materialize in thin air

-"You need to teach me how to do that" Emma said looking at the solid box in her hands "It's gotta be awesome to Harry Potter around in a not-just-emergencies way like that"

-"Have you asked Gold? I'm sure he would teach you"

-"I'm not selling my soul to the devil Thank you very much"

-"And you're asking me?"

"Well you're not the devil and—"

-"Hey! My present, you can discuss this later" Henry said after patiently looking at the box for a total of 5 seconds

Regina gave him the box and he ripped the wrapping paper to find a box with a silver apple on it

-"You got me a macboook! Awesome" Henry once again hugged her with such an impulse she was nearly tackled from the stool she'd taken to avoid contact with the ground and the logs "Thanks mom, I love you"

His enthusiasm towards Regina once more made Emma feel awful, this time she felt the change in her mood and saw the green eyes look away, recognizing the pain in her expression as the same she'd felt when he would rather spend his days with a complete stranger than talk to her. For the first time in a Regina was not enjoying Emma's distress, she wanted to make it stop but at the same time she didn't want to do anything to jeopardize the warmth in her chest every time Henry smiled at her again. Emma Swan sat there feeling the world she'd created for over a year vanish into the vacuum; before Henry she had nothing and now he was going again, she never did understand why he had let her into his life so easily, even if Regina was flawed like all of us she was still his mother for 11 years, and now it was as if he had finally realized she could not be a parent and decided to go back to her, that was partly why she had been so against him going, she knew Regina was not going to kidnap her own son but she was scared she might remind him who was his mother and who could pass as a babysitter at best, and that a night of proper care could send him back to the woman that had cared for him and make him get over the one that gave him away. And now that she'd given her a chance she couldn't really blame him, before that day Regina had made extremely poor decisions, but right there she wasn't the evil queen she was just being Henry's mother and she was kickass at that. Emma was certainly liking this side of Regina better than the other one, she had seen the family traditions and heard the stories and watch the laughs and she wanted in on that, she wanted to be part of that family, not a family because she never got one, _that_ family, Henry, and well, Regina; she couldn't believe she was thinking that but it seemed right.

-"Moms I think I'll go to sleep now, it's so past my bedtime, I can feel it in my bones"

-"Wait, don't you know it's midnight?" Emma said getting out of her mind

-"Midnight? Mom?"

-"Happy Birthday"

-"Then I guess I will go to sleep before you have to carry me, you can't handle this much muscle"

-"Who are you?" Regina said amused

-"Bye kid"

There were a few minutes of silence before Emma broke it to make sure she got as much nice Regina as she could to sip on it later

-"The things 12-year old get these days, when I turned twelve I got a pair of socks, they were new, I was extremely excited"

-"I got dance lessons, the medieval version of dance lessons, akin to what girls get before cotillion these days but much less glamorous"

-"Thanks for saving me from those" Emma joked before thinking it through "Too soon?"

-"It's fine, I didn't think you would feel comfortable joking about that"

-"As I see it if you can't joke about the crap in your life it destroys you. And I feel like I have a big responsibility, who else can joke about Snow White being her mother? At some point Henry will embrace the duty to make jokes that we share being the kids of the top-two characters of all times after Jesus" Emma told her, her tone getting softer as she remembered who was Henry's mother and who was a glorified babysitter

Regina picked on the shift in her mood and thought maybe she could say something to fix it now that Henry was not around to see her acknowledge Emma Swan as a parent. "It's an act, I'm not saying it's completely fake but he's overdoing it to upset you because you dared give him orders for the first time, in the wrong issue by the way"

-"huh?"

-"He's being extremely nice to me to upset you. Trust me, I'd know, that's what us Mills do" she said reminding her he still was her son, even if she was trying to make her feel better

-"Doesn't seem like an act" Emma replied with her eyes fixated on her featured to detect any emotion going on in Regina's mind

-"He learned from someone who learned from the best", Regina's face had remained calm until the reminder of her mother, a sad look past briefly through her brown eyes

Emma picked up on that and felt like a joke would cheer her up "Literally heartless, who else has that? One of kind Regina, with great power comes great responsibility" again she didn't really think hard before saying it "Too soon right?"

Regina chuckled, "No, I'm okay, I will embrace my responsibility that thankfully doesn't include stopping robberies or stopping crazed scientists"

-"Or worms"

-"I'm blessed"

-"I think we should stop reading Henry's comic books"

-"Well, look at you pitching brilliant ideas Miss Swan" Regina said masking her face again

-"C'mon, don't do that" Emma replied showing annoyance in her voice

-"What? If I may ask"

-"You shut me out with your mind games. We were having a perfectly nice conversation and you Miss-Swan me to upset me and keep the upper hand, not cool"

-"I see your new family has changed you, I recall you used to enjoy playing my mind games when you first came into town and maimed a perfectly innocent tree to upset me and keep the upper hand, I was under the impression you viewed it as _cool_ back then" Regina said with a clearly faked ingenuousness and the tiniest of smirks formed in her lips as she waited for Emma's response, drawing the blonde's attention to them

-"Love changed me" Emma said moving to the end of the log closer to Regina's camping stool, partly because she felt she could without being rejected and partly because she heard a noise coming from the section of the woods on the other side. "I used to live in a defensive state but now I guess there are other people willing to defend me so I can stop maiming trees to preserve my honor"

-"It sounds idiotic, letting other someone than yourself to _defend_ you" Regina told her letting down the shield but still hanging on to it

-"I don't know, I thought so too, I mean being extremely fucked by everyone over almost 30 years I learned to trust no bitch but at the same time when I got here Mary Margaret and Ruby were so great to me and obviously the kid who just thought I was awesome, no one ever thought I was awesome, and now there's too David who really tries to be a dad but doesn't manage and ends up being really cute to see him care, no one had ever cared for me half as much as these people do, and I had never cared for anyone. It's actually pretty cool, they defend me and I defend them, so we are all covered" Emma said in a rush, being ashamed to put herself out there to someone like Regina who had always so eager to destroy here, except that day of course

-"It's a beautiful thought," Regina replied managing to sound both sarcastic and sincere "But there's certain point you reach where you can't let that responsibility fall into hands other than your own Miss Swan, whether it is because other people don't want it or because you don't want to hand it to them"

-"And what's your case? Because I would have totally been up to defend you when I started defending people if you hadn't been a complete bitch when I showed up, would you have liked that or what?"

-"I'm not following"

-"I mean, defending metaphor aside, if maybe you would have liked us being close or something?"

-"Friendly"

-"Yeah, friendly, if I hadn't pushed so hard for Henry, who was already scared of you and wanted an exit, maybe you would have been up to share him? Maybe we just both started this relationship wrong?"

-"Let's say we did, what about the curse?"

-" Okay, you just started a life on this ,um, world wrong; but I wouldn't have cared if you hadn't actually acted like the real life version of an evil hierarch, It's not like I don't believe people can change"

-"You think I've changed?"

-"yeah, I mean you're still bitchy as hell but I don't get murderous from your vibe"

-"You're aware of all the things I have done, and yet you don't get murderous from my vibe?"

-"I'm also aware of all the things you could do with your Harry Potter half and I don't see you doing any of those so I'd say you have changed, Henry's love changed you maybe, like it made me stay more than a week"

-"If you trust there has been a change in my methods to obtain what I desire, why on earth did you see the need to crash a camping trip"

-"Mmhm, I just –I -c'mon, let that one go"

-"I'm trying to have a perfectly nice conversation with you Miss Swan"

-"At first I thought you could convince him to move back and hate me somehow, two days are enough with your persuasive words and I'm not really that good of a parent, more a sober companion, kids version, you know he can have fun with me but I have to stay a bit responsible without really stop being a friend, I thought if he spent that much time exposed to you he'd remember what he's missing. Which he totally is. And then I saw an opportunity to go camping with him and do something family-ish that I had never done and I knew he wouldn't agree to go with me because it's something he does with you and I really wanted to go camping with family, and I sure as hell wasn't going to tell Mary Margaret and David to take me camping, I'm not twelve, and I decided to crash yours, sorry, also because I wanted to see whatever you'd wear in the woods 'cause you always look so good and I thought maybe here you wouldn't but you do, and you're being so nice that I was thinking I want to crash this every year and now I told you so I really can't crash so I was hoping you'd invite me to it when Henry moves back and forgets about me"

-"Are you aware of your rambling issue?" Regina answered amused at the length and speed of her speech

-"I am, I think it started whe—"Emma replied not noticing the playfulness in the words spoken to her

-"Miss Swan, please" Regina interrupted thinking one time it may come out as endearing but more than once it would make her want to throttle her

-"Right"

-"You look good most of the time too"

-"Huh?"

-"You said I always look good, which is true, and I'm telling you that you look nice, mostly"

-"Oh, thanks" Emma said with a small smile and kept silence for a few seconds waiting for Regina to say something about everything else she could have mumbled without even noticing, when she didn't say anything it dawned on her "Oh" she added more stretched and high "Was that—are you flirting here or what is going on? I suck at this"

Regina chuckled slightly and kept acting like she hadn't heard that comment "And if Henry is okay with it, and I'm sure he is, I'll be glad to have you in the camping trip every year"

Emma who was now certain it was definitely flirting hadn't really paid attention to whatever Regina was saying for she was busy following the movement of her mouth and trying to process the fact that Regina was being nice, not civil, and also flirting. When her lips stopped moving Emma decided as she was flirting with her she was probably allowed to make a move now so she leaned forward and kissed her briefly, as most of what Emma does and says when Regina is involved, she didn't think it through and ended up saying "Shit, too soon right? No don't answer, it was cool right? Oh god, here comes the rambling, aaaaaare youuuu reeeeady? Oh god no, I'll go to sleep now, bye, don't wake me up or anything, you can leave without me if you want to" as she shot up from the log and looked at Regina who wasn't really trying to stop her from talking very hard. When she finished Emma went into her tent leaving Regina sitting in her small stool with a smirk made out of pleasant surprise.

/

Regina was next to Henry, who was clutching the box like it could grow legs and walk away from him, she had tried to sleep for a good half an hour but found that she couldn't, it had never been an easy task to fall asleep in the camping trips she had made with him, there was something about sleeping in the middle of the woods with nothing but fabric protecting them that made her feel utterly naked and kept her up for most of the night, but this time besides that there was Emma Swan, who had just mouthraped her and fled, Emma Swan who had crashed her trip –her life- and now turned up to be a fairly nice person to be around and was somehow infatuated with her, in her advantage she was definitely attractive and Henry already liked her, in her disadvantage, well, she was Emma Swan. Regina lay on the sleeping bag listening to her son's steady breathing and reliving the conversation that had led to the one-second kiss that kept her awake, she felt overwhelmed by it all, there had been far too much progress made in one afternoon, like Emma had said more than once, too soon; but it really wasn't too soon was it? Emma had been in their lives for over a year, it had been more than twelve months of oogling, unnecessary fighting and emotions being conveyed in glances but not being spoken out loud, Regina felt it had been a matter of when with them, she felt she should have seen it coming. It seemed her unsettlement had disturbed Henry's slumber; he turned leaving the box for a minute and opening his eyes to look for the source of the motion in the side of his sleeping bag

-"Mom, are you okay? Your knee is kind of poking me, constantly"

-"Yes, I'm okay dear"

-"is it the worms? They are outside mom"

-"It's not the worms, you just sleep, I'll go back out"

-"Am I too big for you to share tents anymore? Mary ma-, my teacher told me this is the age that I grow in"

-"We will share a tent until you're thirty, they do make bigger ones. I'll just be outside"

-"Okay" was the last thing he said before turning back to his box and feeling Regina move for a while and then just not feel her anymore

* * *

Emma was in a similar situation in her own tent, asking a inner smarter self whether Regina had or not flirted with her, Emma thought she was flirting, but again maybe that was just her being nice for the first time ever, she couldn't really know without a comparison point, the last time she remembers having a semi nice conversation with her was the time she'd told her to go to the dinner that one night and that had turned flirty fast too, shit maybe Regina's nice is just flirty and she just had jumped to conclusions, but the afternoon had gone so well, without insults or any yelling at all, and then they had had that conversation that got deep and emotional; Emma saw an opening and took it, it's not like she wasn't waiting for the opening since the first minute she saw Regina, so whatever could happen next she didn't regretted, she'd gotten a glimpse of first base at least. Even after making peace with it, Emma wasn't able to sleep, she really wanted more than what she was getting, that day she had learned Regina was more than a hot body and now she craved more without feeling like a crazy masochist, she could see her dating the woman. The blonde had always found an outlet for her emotions drifting; she was always at her best when her feet were moving away from the issues at hand so she decided to take a walk, she put her headphones on and got out of the tent heading for the woods, Regina's voice filtered past her Metallica making her stop and turn the small fire they had set and now Regina had apparently reignited

-"A walk?" was the only thing Emma managed to push above the lump in her throat

-"One can think of better activities to do at 5 in the morning Miss Swan, but sure" Regina told he as she got up from her stool and created a thin layer of pure energy enclosing the area, "He'll be fine"

-"Great" Emma mumbled, ashamed of how she hadn't even thought of Henry being alone in the middle of the woods and the danger he'd be in

They walked for a few minutes, the forest so dead silent Regina could clearly hear the music coming from Emma's headphones from a few steps back, and so dark she was left with no way to follow her but to guide herself with the sound.

-"He is you" Emma said lowering her pace as she realized how much they had distanced themselves from the camping site

-"Is that a compliment?"

-"I mean you have raised a mini you. Yesterday he was angry at me, most of the time he just swallows it and apologizes or something, but yesterday he was like you, his tone and his comments and his expression, he redirected his anger like you always do, to me, he was out to hurt me, you said it yourself"

-"So I assume it was not a compliment" Regina replied sounded almost wounded of how the comment had not been a great parenting golden star but a bad example red mark

-"Little evil leprechaun—"

-"Miss Swan I can sense the beginning of a ramble, it's losing its charm"

- "Sorry, so I though there it is, he has showed what Regina totally taught him, because I have always wondered how did he turn out that cute with someone so bitchy as a mother, I was like brace yourselves, darkness it's coming"

-"This has been a great conversation" Regina said with no emotion in her voice

-"But today I saw the bright side of you"

-"The plot thickens" Regina chimed without letting the surprise affect her tone

-"Just hear me out, I thought the dark side had an explanation and the nice he just didn't got from you"

-"You've been over that one Miss Swan"

-"Jesus fucking Christ shut up, today I saw he did got it from you, you can be as good as him, you probably were for 10 years until I showed up. Seriously, if he chooses to show the bright side, why don't you?"

-"The first step is to identify the root of problem, when did you say it began?"

-"Nice Regina, I'm trying to have an adult conversation here. Take it as the gift it is and answer"

Regina exhaled loudly to let her know the pain in the ass opening up meant to her "I don't know how to answer to that. Perhaps you don't see a nicer me because all I am to you is The Evil Queen"

-"okay, and?"

-"You don't want to do this now"

-"I do, see I'm sitting and everything, pausing the music, ready to listen to your reasoning, let's do this." Emma told her as she moved some branches on the floor to clear enough space for both of them to sit

Regina eyed the dirt for a few seconds struggling with both of Emma's requests

-"Just sit, c'mon"

Regina sat reluctantly with her knees up to avoid as much contact with the ground as she could and kept silent for a minute to gather her thoughts. "I was done with that side of me, I was fairly pleased with what I had accomplished a while after we got her it turned incredibly monotonous and it remained that way for years, but then I adopted Henry, he was all I ever wanted and for once I was happy, even though I knew it was all built on a lie I couldn't care less, I had him and it was a safe thing, it was given but there wasn't a possibility it could be taken away if I didn't harm him, which I wasn't planning on. But then you came along and tried to take him away based on practically nothing but a hunch, it infuriated me, and as you might now by now I can't deal with anger, not properly anyway; and then you broke the curse, it all went downhill since you broke the stupid curse, it became a matter of killed or be killed, and it doesn't matter how your dear parents or you try to spin it, you wanted revenge so did the rest of the town it really didn't mattered if I wasn't the same person for more than 30 years if you hadn't fallen through that portal I would have most likely gotten killed by either an angry mob or the medieval legal system. But worse than all of that, Henry learned everything he always knew was a lie I built after I did, well, all of what I did, you're probably in the loop by now." Regina's eyes began to fill with tears and her lips began to quiver as she said one last thing "And I was back to nothing, no son, no love, only hate from the people I reigned over"

Emma was sitting next to her listening to every word and breath like her life depended on how much of it she retained, she watched tears make a trail through the woman's face and remembered how feared and loathed she was and couldn't help to wonder how many people had listened half a minute to see more than the hard exterior, she had wasted over a year herself bickering and strangling her son for her without realizing how broken she was, how great she was. Regina had let herself go and she was a second away from a complete meltdown in the middle of the woods, Emma moved closer to hold her and as she felt her give in and relax in her arms she knew that trip had changed them and that she was damn happy she crashed that family.

-"I understand, I have a dark past too and this, Henry, is my new beginning too. I'm sorry I tried to take it from you, and for all it helps I'm sorry everyone else doesn't take the time to see past the Evil Queen badassery to the really fluffy inside"

Regina chuckled between sobs and wiped the tears away "thanks Miss Swan, and for all it matters, at this point, I know he's not mine, he's ours, and I'd like to share my new beginning with you"

-"Is there a clause somewhere that forbids you to say Emma?"

-"Emma."

-"Music to my ears Madam Mayor, hey I'm really sorry for having you in a Henry withdrawal too, and for everything else, like the tree and the murder accusation and you know, all the shit"

-"Slow down please, It's okay, you were a mother doing what you thought was best for your kid, what you thought was wrong though. The tree could have used a trim, after a few incidents apples lose their appeal. Somehow you managed to accuse me of the one murder I wasn't guilty of, needle in a haystack, I had It coming. And I have my fair of shit to apologize for, and I really am sorry, truly Emma" Regina replied pulling herself together but not really moving out of Emma's arms

-"I'm a mother?"

-" Of all I said, that's what you picked up?"

-"Whatever, you used the m word"

Emma held Regina, who didn't really saw the point to deny it anymore, as the blue in the sky turned lighter she forgot about every defense she had kept up and sunk into the blonde's figure. A few minutes went by in a comfortable silence and the she tilted her head to her side and kissed Emma Swan with all the feelings she'd fought against since she appeared in her front step

-"One year too late" was the only thing she told her after their lips parted and before looking up again stalling reality as much as she could

A soft "Was that flirting or…?" Escaped Emma playfully who felt Regina laugh against her as she thought what on earth could she do in a date to impress after that night.


End file.
